Saturday night at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps broke their goal-scoring drought (and ended their shutout streak) against Minnesota United, taking away all three points by a final score of 3-2.

Despite a scruffy start for the home side, overall, Vancouver played some very good attacking football in this match. Impressively, they showed far more diversity in their chance creation than we had seen for the last several matches. In particular, Ryan Gauld and Pedro Vite were notably active which was a sight for sore eyes, especially after the pair of attacking mids were missing in action for the last couple of weeks.

While there were plenty of positives, one could also point to Vancouver’s failure to make adjustments in the latter stages of each half. While the Whitecaps were easily the better team on Saturday night, they allowed Minnesota to stay alive with some defensive errors, and as such, were only a couple bounces away from dropping even more points on their home turf. All things considered though, this was a big step in the right direction for a Whitecaps team who’s results need to start matching up with their positive play.

Ok, on to player grades as always.

Yohei Takaoka (6.0) – I won’t be quite as harsh as Paul Dolan and say that the Japanese keeper was fully at fault for the opening Loons goal, but obviously you would like your keeper to rise up and claim that ball. It looked to me like Takaoka was anticipating Blackmon winning the header and when that didn’t happen, the scramble ensued. While not having to make many saves, Takaoka was very good with the ball at his feet in this one.

Javain Brown (6.0) – Especially after making the defensive substitution in the second half, the Whitecaps had their wires crossed a couple times at the back, and most of those occurred on Brown’s side of the pitch. Overall though, it was a decent bounce back showing from the Jamaican.

Ranko Veselinovic (6.5) – In typical Ranko fashion, he had a very strong match marred by one or two tough moments defensively. I’m not sure I can explain his positioning on the second Minnesota goal, but obviously something did not go according to plan. It was nice to see his offensive efforts in the air awarded with an assist.

Tristan Blackmon (7.0) – Blackmon has looked like the best Whitecaps defender this season and that continued Saturday. While not perfect, Blackmon continues to be confident and decisive in 1v1s and with crosses into the box.

Luis Martins (6.0) -The Portuguese defender played two or three really nice balls into the box in this match which was good to see, especially given that his offensive contributions have been less notable recently. The problem with Martins is that he does very little other than cross the ball.

Andres Cubas (7.0) – The Paraguayan did a nice job making life difficult for the Loons’ midfield five in this match. Overall, that group really struggled to play through Cubas outside of the young Korean, Jeong. Cubas also made some great outlet passes to launch the Whitecaps in attack.

Julian Gressel (7.0) – This might have been a quiet match on the ball by Gressel standards, but I thought he really put in a shift defensively, sticking a foot in when necessary to break up Minnesota possession. Given his quality, I would love Gressel to take more shots from the edge of the box when the opportunity presents itself.

Alessandro Schopf (6.5) – Especially in the opening half, I really liked the way Schopf combined with Pedro Vite down the left side for Vancouver. They are both very comfortable with the ball at their feet, and they look for through-balls and cutbacks where often others would only look for an early cross. While the motor is not there for the Austrian just yet, it is encouraging to have Schopf back in the fold.

Pedro Vite (7.0) – I was worried after the last match that Vite might not get another look on Saturday, but it was good to see him back up Sartini’s faith with one of his best performances of the season. When rolling, Vite really offers a different dimension to the Whitecaps attack and creates space and stretches defences with his dribbling and passing. It would be nice to see Vite have a little more killer instinct on the end of chances, but I think this will only come with a consistent run of games for the youngster, like it did at the end of last year.

Ryan Gauld (7.0) – The Scotsman’s best match of the season so far was not just about his assist, but it had a lot to do with the fact that he just looked a lot more like himself: maintaining possession under pressure, winning fouls, pressing without the ball, being clinical on the counter-attack, etc. A bit like Gressel, it would be good to see Gauld look for his own shot a bit more often, but this showing was a huge step in the right direction for Gauld to be the player we all know he’s capable of being.

Brian White (7.0) – Somehow, two goals for Brian White in this match felt like the bare minimum he was capable of, all in 55 minutes of play. The story is a familiar one, White is as good as anyone in the league at being in the right place at the right time, but the finishing, for the volume of chances he creates for himself, is not always there. Slowly but surely though, White is closing in on his xG totals in an attempt to prove the haters wrong and vindicate the idea that the Whitecaps don’t need a new striker in order to be successful.

Substitutes – I don’t have anything profound or groundbreaking to say about the sub performances. Simon Becher continues to be an absolute poacher in limited minutes and might make life difficult for Sergio Cordova if he’s not careful. Bringing on Laborda to go five at the back appeared to create more confusion than it did anything else. Raposo and Teibert, I assume, will get starts midweek against York in the Canadian Championship.

Vanni Sartini (6.0) – As with my assessment thus far, the Whitecaps made some nice tweaks offensively but struggled to adjust at the end of each half, and did not do a very good job controlling proceedings as they tried to close out the match. Sartini does have midweek cup play to think about, so I’ll give him a bit of a pass in this one. Overall, it still feels like coaching is a bit of a hindrance rather than additive to this team’s play.

Alright, those were my thoughts on the match. It was a solid showing where no one stood out miles above the rest and no one was particularly poor either. While not great for punditry, I think this is a really good sign for Vancouver going forward, who can hopefully take care of business in the cup and start to vault themselves up the league table over this busy upcoming stretch.

As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments.

(Image Credit: Shotbug Press)